The present invention pertains to nuclear fuel assemblies, and more particularly, to the coating of fuel assembly components.
Although coating the inside of fuel assembly components has been recognized as providing significant advantages, the small inside diameters, high aspect ratios, and high costs of conventional coating processes, have stymied commercialization of such improved fuel assembly components. Two pending U.S. applications represent a significant advance in the state of the art in this respect.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/924,731, "Sputtering Process Burnable Poison Coating" (Bryan et al), is directed to a method for sputter coating the inside surface of a fuel assembly tubular component with absorber material such as a burnable poison or hydrogen getter. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/924,732, "Fuel Assembly Sputtering Process" (Bryan et al), is directed to a method for sputter coating the inside surface of fuel assembly tubular components such as nuclear fuel rods or control rod guide tubes, with wear or corrosion resistant material. The foregoing U.S. applications, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference, describe the so called Linear Magnetron Sputtering process as the preferred sputtering technique. The sputtering process disclosed in these applications requires active confinement of a plasma within the tubular substrate to be coated, as well as an active cooling system.